Today I want to show you how I use data from Google Search Console to quickly analyze my website’s rankings, and identify potential problems or opportunities to improve them. Why Google Search Console? The beauty of Google Search Console is that it gives you the complete data set for all organic traffic, including the “not provided” keywords. Ok, let’s get on with the process and examples… Step 1: Review overall traffic patterns The first thing I do is look at the overall traffic patterns in Search Console Helper. Step 2: Take care of the all-time best performers Next, I review my all-time best performing pages and keywords. From the data I begin by pulling a report from Search Console Helper with my most trafficked pages: These pages are responsible for the biggest chunk of my traffic (and income). However, Search Console Helper tells me that the traffic peaked during the first week of September and hasn’t picked up since: Digging deeper, it seems that most of the traffic loss can be attributed to one single keyword: “social media management tools”. Most of it was for the term “social media marketing”. This example shows that my posts have the potential to perform very well in Google even for the most competitive terms. Conclusion So, there you have it: my 3-step process for quickly analyzing my website’s rankings and traffic, identifying potential problems and discovering new opportunities with data from Google Search Console.
Why? Because it delivers over 60% of my website traffic.
Today I want to show you how I use data from Google Search Console to quickly analyze my website’s rankings, and identify potential problems or opportunities to improve them.
Why Google Search Console?
The beauty of Google Search Console is that it gives you the complete data set for all organic traffic, including the “not provided” keywords.
Plus, this data comes straight from Google so there is no need for any estimations or guesswork.
My secret weapon: Search Console Helper
Instead of using Google Search Console’s interface, I prefer to use a third-party tool called Search Console Helper.
Search Console Helper pulls data directly from Google Search Console and then extends its capability with a much better interface. It also has many crucial features, not found in Google Search Console.
This is what it looks like:
Ok, let’s get on with the process and examples…
Step 1: Review overall traffic patterns
The first thing I do is look at the overall traffic patterns in Search Console Helper.
The day-by-day performance shows a clear pattern of “weekend drops”, which are typical for sites like mine that write on work-related topics.
What I’m looking for are any anomalies or dramatic changes. As you can see from the screenshot above, the total weekly traffic (blue line) is relatively stable, with a slight decrease over the past couple of weeks.
But, what is that huge spike in impressions at the end of July?
When I took a closer look I discovered a recent blog post (3 secret gmail buttons) that for a couple of days shot to the first page of Google, particularly in India and the US, for the term “gmail”:
Step 2: Take care of the all-time best performers
Next, I review my all-time best performing pages and keywords.
From the data I begin by pulling a report from Search Console Helper with my most trafficked pages:
These pages are responsible for the biggest chunk of my traffic (and income). So, I want to make sure they continue to perform well.
I usually take a look at each of them, one by one, studying any changes in clicks, impressions, click-through-rate or positions. When I find any negative developments, I make it my priority to identify the cause and take action as soon as possible.
To give you a better idea, let me show you a couple of examples:
Example #1: “17 Best Social Media Management Tools”
This is my best performing page, by far. It’s responsible for more than 10% (!) of my total organic traffic.
However, Search Console Helper tells me that the traffic peaked during the first week of September…
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